brave

brave [breɪv]



adj
1.
a. having or displaying courage, resolution, or daring; not cowardly or timid
b. (as collective noun preceded by the) the brave
2. fine; splendid a brave sight a brave attempt
3. Archaic excellent or admirable
vb (tr)
1. to dare or defy to brave the odds
2. to confront with resolution or courage to brave the storm

So, here we go with what life and volunteering in Livingstone was all about.
Monday morning started with the orientation, what African Impact does, what was expected about the volunteer house etc. Nothing surprising or out of the ordinary there. Then came our meeting with Brave…a wonderful, boisterous, LOUD and funny guy. Small of stature but powerful of presence. Not a doctor, but with all the knowledge. I am in awe of him.


We were asked if any of us had experience in medical procedures, especially with using a blood pressure cuff and using a stethoscope to measure blood pressure. NO? Ok..let’s give it a try…sure. To me, everyone is dead, I can’t hear a thing. It’s kinda a mathematical thing for me, such and such over such and such is good, other is bad,… eh??? I don’t do math, so the whole thing is over my head. I try practicing, but still no sounds, first disappointment of the day; who said I was suppose to take people’s blood pressure anyway!? I’d probably kill someone, guessing the wrong way. You want me to give people Paracetamol…good thing I read lots of British novels and know what those are, but how do I know how many to give, pray tell. The rest of the meeting goes along like this. I am getting a little distressed. Good thing lunch is upon us, and I get a much needed smoke to call the nerves. After lunch I am paired with Antonia (a young German girl who has been on the project for about 6 weeks already) and Tobias, a young fellow from Norway who has arrived the same time as me. We are told that the following day we were expected to give a talk at the Maramba Old Folks Home on nutrition and health care. Ok, so how do you plan a talk on these things, when you haven’t met the people, have no idea of their living arrangements, dietary needs, or health? Antonia has been to the Home so has a bit of an idea of what the place is like, and just wants to give the talk like we would to folks at home, but I wonder if the old folks will have any idea what we are talking about….I’ve seen what and how families eat here, and what living conditions can be like; so to go ahead and relate to them like we would to folks at home seems redundant to me, it would seem better to at least met them first, then plan a talk around what they can comprehend and put into practice. This may not seem like a big deal, with the telling (I think you may have had to be there, to understand), but it was the straw that broke me, that day. I wondered what the hell I had got myself into and whether I was going to be ok with volunteering here. There must have been other issues going on for me, as I don’t ever break down over things like this, but I’ll be darned if I know what it was all about; I just know that I lost it at that moment. Brave spotted me sitting off by myself, trying to figure out how to come up with something to discuss with the folks and feeling very blue, and came over to see what was up. I just kept saying, “this was NOT what I expected; I feel like I’ve been dropped into some alien world, where no one speaks the same language as me. I’m one of those people needs a little more guidance on how to do these things expected of me”. Brave assumed it was culture shock, but I don’t believe that was it, I think it had a lot to do with all the volunteers being young, no one really interacting with me, so I was feeling very alone and unsure. Brave decided that my time would be better spent helping him sort the medical supplies and cleaning up the medical backpacks, for which I was utterly grateful; leaving the planning to the two young folks. This kept us occupied until dinner. Thank you for your compassion, Brave.